Chapter 63: Eating Tofu After Daybreak

Backstage, Song Jiaru had finished her makeup and styling.

A custom-made star-blue long dress, studded with fine sequins, as if she wore the entire Milky Way on her body.

She looked at herself in the mirror, and also looked at that illusory figure gradually dissipating in the mirror.

"Big Brother..."

She muttered silently in her heart. The tears she forcefully held back were already swirling crazily in her eye rims, her vision a blurry patch.

"Is it... time? Are you really leaving?"

No one answered.

Only that familiar aura in the air that made her feel at ease was withdrawing at a resolute speed.

She took a deep breath, forcibly swallowing all the sorrow, fear, and love back into her stomach, turning it into the decisiveness of rushing to the battlefield.

"Next, please enjoy the song—'Sea of Stars'! Performed by: Song Jiaru!"

The host's announcement spread across the land of Huaxia through the speakers.

The spotlight turned on with a "swish," cleaving a path of light leading to the center of the stage in the darkness.

Dragging that brilliant river of stars, Song Jiaru walked step by step toward that center watched by the masses.

Every step was like stepping on the drumbeat of a heartbeat.

The musical prelude flowed slowly like a pouring river of stars.

She raised the microphone, and her clear and powerful singing voice instantly pierced through all the clamor, striking straight to the soul:

"I wish to become a star,

Guarding the buzzing at the bottom of the sea..."

Just two lines, that ethereal yet firm voice made countless viewers in front of their TVs hold their breath.

And exactly at the instant she sang these two lines, she clearly felt it—that gaze behind her that had followed her like a shadow for countless days and nights, that warm existence that supported her through all bewilderment and cowardice, flickered like a snowy screen with a bad signal, and then, went out.

Empty.

Behind her was completely empty.

That feeling was like having a rib forcibly extracted from her body. The intense phantom pain almost made her suffocate on the stage.

He left.

He really left.

Without even a single goodbye, he just disappeared from her world like this.

But she didn't stop.

She couldn't stop.

This was the song he gave her, this was her final confession to him.

She turned all the pain, all the love, all the despair into even hotter, crazier singing:

"I come rushing toward you,

You are—the sea of stars!!!"

In the high-note section, she sang drippingly joyfully, sang heartbrokenly, as if using all the strength in her life to rush toward that appointment destined to be nothingness.

Right at the instant she looked up and sang loudly, that tear she had held back for too long finally completely burst its banks.

The crystal teardrop slid across her exquisitely beautiful face, refracting light like broken diamonds under the spotlight, and then smashed heavily onto the stage.

On the stage, she was the new star looked up to by the masses, radiant and dazzling, receiving all the glory and favor;

In her soul, her world was collapsing, standing alone on the ruins, enduring this heart-tearing, lung-splitting eternal parting that no one knew about.

She persisted in singing the very last note.

Amidst the thunderous, enduring applause, she turned around, faced her empty back, bowed deeply, and revealed a smile that was poignantly beautiful to the extreme, yet containing tears.

Goodbye, Big Brother;

Goodbye, my... first love.

That night, #SongJiaruSeaOfStars# and #SongJiaruCriesAtSpringFestivalGala# instantly detonated the entire internet with terrifying heat!

"Cried listening to it! Really cried listening to it! That tear smashed directly into my heart!"

"Who exactly is she looking at through the camera? That look in her eyes is too heartbreaking!"

"This is absolutely the most shocking live performance in the history of the Spring Festival Gala! Bar none!"

That screenshot of her looking up and singing, tears pouring down, with the brilliant river of stars behind her, was frantically forwarded and secondarily created on the internet, becoming the most classic moment of that year's Spring Festival Gala, bar none.

No one knew that those surging tears flowed for an unforgettable companionship and farewell spanning across dimensions.

She finally put on her own "golden hoop," became the national Queen of Pop, and also lost her "Zixia."

(TL: Another reference to "A Chinese Odyssey," where Joker putting on the golden hoop to become Sun Wukong means he must abandon his mortal love, Zixia.)

...

Of course, the gazes cast toward her in this world were not all full of praise.

For example, in a certain cell of Chengzhou No. 1 Detention Center, Xu Kun, wearing a yellow vest symbolizing a death row inmate and shackles on his feet, was curled up in the corner of the communal bed, staring fixedly at the flashing TV screen high up.

On the screen, that woman whom he once viewed as a plaything, yet who directly caused his family to be ruined and perish, was standing at the peak of the world, accepting the cheers of the masses.

Boundless regret and anger rolled in his murky eyes.

...

In front of the screen, Xu Yunzhou watched Song Jiaru step onto that stage watched by the masses, and an unspeakable melancholy still uncontrollably surged into his heart.

He quietly listened to her sing, looked at her appearance of forcibly holding back tears, his heart full of complex emotions.

Suddenly, that familiar system notification sound rang again, cold and mechanical:

[Ding! Song Jiaru's comprehensive charm value has stably broken through 90, and the activation degree of the hidden talent 'Voice of Nature' has reached 90%!]

[Song Jiaru's Coronation of the Goddess Queen of Pop has been completed!]

[Reward Settlement: Twenty thousand Mall Coins!]

[You can say one last word of blessing to her, after which the next nurturing target will be loaded: Xu Nuo. Hidden talent: Limitless Will. Enter immediately?]

Xu Yunzhou's fingers hovered above the keyboard, not falling for a long time.

Unlike the greenness and helplessness when leaving a message for Lin Ruoxuan the first time, this time he considered more—he absolutely couldn't let Song Jiaru fall into self-doubt and mental friction either.

He must give her a definite, hope-filled future.

Suddenly, a relieved smile curled up at the corners of his mouth, his fingertips dancing briskly on the keyboard:

"Song Jiaru, I regret it."

"I don't want to wait until May 24, 2025, to meet you."

"Let's move the meeting forward by one day, on May 23, okay?"

"Mhm, if you stay at Qiushui Manor according to plan that day, remember to wear a mask, go out and walk forward to a breakfast stall between Yue Fei's Tomb and Mingyue Tower. The stall owner is an uncle wearing glasses. I want to eat your tofu... no wait, I want to treat you to tofu pudding."

(TL: "Eat tofu" is Chinese slang for taking advantage of a woman sexually/groping.)

"Mhm, we will part temporarily for a period of time. For the next ten years, you must be happy. I will wait for you by the West Lake, and when the time comes, we will go see the true sea of stars together."

After writing this paragraph, Xu Yunzhou let out a long breath, as if unloading a heavy burden of a thousand catties.

Looking at the time, it was already past 4:00 AM.

He glanced at that new target "Xu Nuo" and the "Limitless Will" tag, muttering in his heart:

"This name, this talent... sounds like a ruthless person. Could it be it wants me to nurture her into an Olympic champion or a special forces king?"

Casually opening a web page to search "Xu Nuo," there were quite a few people with this name.

There were over fifty entries on the encyclopedia, and a few were indeed athletes, but their results couldn't be considered top-tier. None seemed to match the System's level of awesomeness.

"It seems this sister is not simple, she's a hidden big shot..."

He yawned,

"Forget it, I'll open the new instance tomorrow. I'll sleep first to conserve my energy..."

He turned off the computer and plunged headfirst into the soft blanket, entering dreamland carrying infinite reverie about tomorrow.

After all, when day breaks, he still has to go to the side of the West Lake to attend a ten-year appointment.